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There exists a great disparity in the literature on the definition of cyberbullying. This research aimed to explore the definition and forms of cyberbullying from adolescents' perspectives. Six focus groups (

Pregnancy or gestation is a physiological condition in which various physiological changes occur. Although pregnancy is a normal phenomenon, several hematological parameters are varied to fulfill the needs of the developing fetus. Sometimes pregnancy becomes complicated due to these changes. Objective: To determine the changes in the hematological profile of healthy pregnant females. Methods: 180 females aged 21 to 34 participated in this study and were placed in a first, second, and third group according to their trimesters, while the fourth group was the control. Each contained 45 females. These women were examined for 12 hematological parameters. Results: When compared with control, it was observed that Hb and RBCs (p-value < 0.05) were lower than control while WBCs (p-value ≤ 0.03) were increased. MCV, MCH and MCHC (p-value < 0.05) showed discontinuous variations along three trimesters. Increase in platelets and neutrophils while a decrease in monocytes, eosinophils, and lymphocytes was observed (p-value

Background: Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections in children. Use of antibiotics according to updated sensitivity pattern is critical. Aim: To determine major bacteria causing UTI with drug sensitivity pattern to find best empirical therapy. Study design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Methodology: This study was conducted at WAPDA hospital Rawalpindi from June 2022 to November 2022. A total of 71 urine culture positive children aged between 1 to 14 years were enrolled. The main variables for the study included age and sex of patient, isolated bacteria and the sensitivity pattern against different drugs. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. The variables are presented in the form of standard deviation and frequency of percentages. Results: The average age of enrolled children was 5.9 (SD ± 3.6) years. The common bacteria leading to UTI were E. coli 43 (60.6%) followed by Klebsiella 11 (15.5%) and Enterococcus 5 (7%). The most common organism isolated was E. coli. The most effective drugs against E. coli are Meropenem (97.2%), Fosfomycin (90.2%), and Amikacin (89.7%). The resistance pattern is Co-trimoxazole (86%), Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (69.8%) and Cefixime (70.7%). Conclusion: The most common isolate was E. coli. The sensitivity of nitrofurantoin, Fosfomycin and Amikacin to the pathogens’ causing UTI is high and can be used empirically. Other commonly used antibiotics are mostly resistant, therefore regular studies in every region are necessary to update the protocols for treatment of UTI. Keywords: Urinary tract infection, E. coli, Amikacin, Urine culture and sensitivity

Arid and semi-arid soils are low in organic matter and have poor fertility, making them a serious threat to crop production. Most organic amendments, such as crop residues and farmyard manure, are short lived because of rapid decomposition. Incubation and pot studies were conducted to assess the impact of wheat straw biochar (produced at 350 °C) on temporal changes in soil microbial biomass and fertility status and to evaluate the efficacy of biochar for maize production in the top layer of Typic calciargid. The incubation study compared four levels of biochar (control, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% on a w/w basis of soil) and two fertilizer rates, i.e., unfertilized (no NPK fertilizer) and fertilized (nitrogen, P2O5 and K2O with rates of 125, 80 and 52.5 mg kg−1 soil, respectively). After incubation, the 2.0% biochar significantly improved the soil cation exchange capacity, organic carbon and microbial biomass carbon by up to 35, 59 and 26%, respectively, while decreasing the soil pH by up to 1.5% compared to that of the control treatment. When fertilized, the 2.0% biochar improved the soil’s available phosphorous, extractable potassium and total nitrogen by up to 59, 39 and 28%, respectively, compared to those of the control. The results from the pot experiment showed that using the 1% biochar with fertilizer significantly increased the maize dry biomass and grain yield by up to 57 and 72%, respectively, compared to those of the control. Additionally, the nitrogen and phosphorus recoveries from the mineral fertilizers improved significantly (up to 26 and 38%, respectively) when using the 1.0% biochar compared to those of the control. Conclusively, the addition of 1.0% biochar significantly improved maize growth and yield by enhancing nutrient recovery from mineral fertilizer and improving soil properties.

Rapid antidepressant effects associated with ketamine have shifted the landscape for the development of therapeutics to treat major depressive disorder (MDD) from a monoaminergic to glutamatergic model. Treatment with ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, may be effective, but has many non-glutamatergic targets, and clinical and logistical problems are potential challenges. These factors underscore the importance of manipulations of binding mechanics to produce antidepressant effects without concomitant clinical side effects. This will require identification of efficient biomarkers to monitor target engagement. The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a widely used electrophysiological signature linked to the activity of NMDA receptors (NMDAR) in humans and animals and validated in pre-clinical and clinical studies of ketamine. In this review, we explore the flexibility of the MMN and its capabilities for reliable use in drug development for NMDAR antagonists in MDD. We supplement this with findings from our own research with three distinct NMDAR antagonists. The research described illustrates that there are important distinctions between the mechanisms of NMDAR antagonism, which are further crystallized when considering the paradigm used to study the MMN. We conclude that the lack of standardized methodology currently prevents MMN from being ready for common use in drug discovery. Clinical trial registration: This manuscript describes data collected from the following National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Veterans Affairs (VA) studies: AV-101, NCT03583554; lanicemine, NCT03166501; ketamine, NCT02556606.

Associations between human genetic variation and clinical phenotypes have become a foundation of biomedical research. Most repositories of these data seek to be disease-agnostic and therefore lack disease-focused views. The Type 2 Diabetes Knowledge Portal (T2DKP) is a public resource of genetic datasets and genomic annotations dedicated to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related traits. Here, we seek to make the T2DKP more accessible to prospective users and more useful to existing users. First, we evaluate the T2DKP's comprehensiveness by comparing its datasets with those of other repositories. Second, we describe how researchers unfamiliar with human genetic data can begin using and correctly interpreting them via the T2DKP. Third, we describe how existing users can extend their current workflows to use the full suite of tools offered by the T2DKP. We finally discuss the lessons offered by the T2DKP toward the goal of democratizing access to complex disease genetic results.

This study has explored the constructive and destructive discourse of green content in the textbooks, designed by the Sindh Textbook Board, and taught in public schools of Sindh, Pakistan. English textbooks for Grades 6 to 10 were selected to carry out the process of data collection and analysis. The data were analyzed by using the categorization framework of Ecological discourse analysis (EDA). The constructive discourse, related to the environment, was categorized into themes and the categorization of eco-lexicons was made to identify the destructive discourse in the textbook. The results found that the constructive discourse related to the environment was present in the textbook; Eco-centric actions and ecological themes. Apart from this, linguistic elements; Euphemism, passive Voices, and nominalization were also identified in the textbooks which encourage destructive behavior by missing the agents or concealing the real culprits behind ecological degradation. Additionally, green content in the textbooks represents a human-centered approach rather than an eco-centric approach in English textbooks. The findings of the study suggest that there is a need of evaluating ecological areas in ELT textbooks to incorporate positive ecological discourse so that constructive change must be brought through education in ELT textbooks. &nbsp

Enormous fluctuation has been observed in energy prices in recent years. This strong volatility in energy prices implies grave inferences for Pakistan’s economy as shown by its substantial dependence on imported fuels. In Pakistan, energy prices play a critical role in inflation determination also concluded in the study at hand. The index of energy inflation was constructed, and the role of various control variables such as board money, taxes, oil prices, energy import, and GDP has been elaborated. Current study endeavors to examine the determinants of energy inflation in Pakistan by using time-series data for 1991 to 2019. Unit root was tested by utilizing ADF, furthermore, the Bound test suggested ARDL cointegration for empirical analysis. Therefore, an increase in the demand for energy in economic activities in developing countries indicates an energy demand hence implies energy inflation. The government of Pakistan must focus on the role of these factors to control inflation and to enhance the welfare in the country.

Employment growth (part-time and full-time) in Sub-sectors of economic activity is not only determined by the output growth in this sector but the time lag is also involved, in addition to this the wage elasticity of employment is also critical in determining employment diversification and labor mobility between sectors, varied widely in different sectors of the economy. This paper endeavors to illustrate the role of part-time and full-time employment elasticity among sectors along with employment diversification. Furthermore, the empirical analysis is carried out on time series data for 1990 to 2019. By utilizing Seemingly Unrelated regression and by estimating wage elasticity of employment with modified two factor Cobb-Douglas function for full time and part-time employment, the results have been illustrated, by carefully considering the reliability, consistency, and accuracy of the findings, this study demonstrates an increased sectoral output tends to enhance employment in respective sectors. For the manufacturing sector and construction sector, both sectoral output and total output were found to have comparable responses that suggest employment for both sectors tends to increase in line with the output. Therefore, the conclusions of the study establish that an effective way to enhance employment is to create flexibility in the wages as an efficient approach to enhance sectoral employment.

The current analysis aims to establish a disaggregated impact of various stages of education on married women’s labor supply, for which responses on various socio-economic determinants of labor supply have been recorded from 834 females from District Sahiwal. Binomial Logistic Regression analysis concluded that education is generally the most significant factor of female labor supply. A higher likelihood has been observed between educated females and a lower probability for non-educated ones to fall into the active labor force. However, a higher level of assets ensures a lower probability of falling into the workforce, furthermore, age, marital status, presence of children, and family setup corroborate female labor supply with a positive impact. Efforts need to be made to transform a woman’s role from an “income shielding” to an “income-generating” role by providing education. Female economic contribution and empowerment are influential tools to uplift the living standard of the household level.

Purpose: Aim of this study was to correlate head posture, working distance and luminance with Myopia. Methods: 300 myopic aged 7 to 18 years (mean 13.5 years) without spectacles male students were included. The subjects under study were analysed through comprehensive examination (visual acuity, objective and subjective refraction). They were asked to recite Holy Book for ten minutes; a random picture was clicked and posture was measured by drawing neck angle at the picture. Their habitual maximum and minimum working distance was measured when student move backward and forward. Luminance level was recorded of each student at place where he used to study. Results: Results of this study showed a negative correlation between myopia and posture reading ([95% CI] RE r= -0.07, p = 0.228, LE r= -0.079, p = 0.173) that depicts if angle decreases then myopia increases. A downhill and significant correlation was found between luminance level and myopia ([95% CI] RE r= -0.700, p = 0.000, LE -0.693, p = 0.000); as the lux (luminance) gets reduced the spherical equivalent gets increased and vice versa. There is a negative correlation between spherical equivalent and minimum working distance ([95% CI] RE r= -0.612, p = 0.000, LE r= -0.588, p = 0.000). A negative correlation between myopia and maximum working distance was found ([95% CI] RE r= -0.634, p = 0.000, LE r= -0.604, p = 0.000). Conclusion: We concluded that variable working distance, adoption of abnormal head posture and low luminance in Religious Schools has noteworthy association with myopia. Eye care professionals should play their vital role to enlighten the community that while performing near tasks all these risk factors should be avoided to halt the progression of myopia.

Theaimofthefollowingstudyistoshowtheenvironmentalconsequencesofindustrialization and greenhouse gas emissions in selected South Asian countries for the time period 2000–2020 by using PMG-ARDL. Infant mortality is a dependentvariable whileindustrialization, greenhouse gas emissions, urbanization, and renewable and nonrenewableenergy consumption are used as independent variables. The results show that industrializationandgreenhousegas emissionshaveapositiveimpactoninfantmortalityrates,whilerenewable energy and urbanization have a negative impact on infant mortality. Furthermore, the results show that there is cross-sectional dependency among all variables in selectedcountries, which revealsthatall thesecountriesshouldmakecollaborativestrategiestodecreaseinfant mortalityrates tocope withthe problemofhealthissues.

Leaf rust is a devastating disease in wheat crop. The disease forecasting models can facilitate the economic and effective use of fungicides and assist in limiting crop yield losses. In this study, six wheat cultivars were screened against leaf rust at two locations, during three consecutive growing seasons. Subsequently, the stepwise regression analysis was employed to analyze the correlation of six epidemiological variables (minimum temperature, maximum temperature, minimum relative humidity, maximum relative humidity, rainfall and wind speed) with disease severity and yield loss (%). Disease predictive models were developed for each cultivar for final leaf rust severity and yield loss prediction. Principally, all epidemiological variables indicated a positive association with leaf rust severity and yield loss (%) except minimum relative humidity. The effectiveness of disease predictive models was estimated using coefficient of determination (R2) values for all models. Then, these predictive models were validated to forecast disease severity and yield loss at another location in Faisalabad. The R2 values of all disease predictive models for each of the tested cultivars were high, evincing that our regression models could be effectively employed to predict leaf rust disease severity and anticipated yield loss. The validation results explained 99% variability, suggesting a highly accurate prediction of the two variables (leaf rust severity and yield loss). The models developed in this research can be used by wheat farmers to forecast disease epidemics and to make disease management decisions accordingly.

Evidence supporting specific therapies for late-life treatment-resistant depression (LL-TRD) is necessary. This study used Bayesian adaptive randomization to determine the optimal dose for the probability of treatment response (≥50% improvement from baseline on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale) 7 days after a 40 min intravenous (IV) infusion of ketamine 0.1 mg/kg (KET 0.1), 0.25 mg/kg (KET 0.25), or 0.5 mg/kg (KET 0.5), compared to midazolam 0.03 mg/kg (MID) as an active placebo. The goal of this study was to identify the best dose to carry forward into a larger clinical trial. Response durability at day 28, safety and tolerability, and effects on cortical excitation/inhibition (E/I) ratio using resting electroencephalography gamma and alpha power, were also determined. Thirty-three medication-free US military veterans (mean age 62; range: 55-72; 10 female) with LL-TRD were randomized double-blind. The trial was terminated when dose superiority was established. All interventions were safe and well-tolerated. Pre-specified decision rules terminated KET 0.1 (N = 4) and KET 0.25 (N = 5) for inferiority. Posterior probability was 0.89 that day-seven treatment response was superior for KET 0.5 (N = 11; response rate = 70%) compared to MID (N = 13; response rate = 46%). Persistent treatment response at day 28 was superior for KET 0.5 (response rate = 82%) compared to MID (response rate = 37%). KET 0.5 had high posterior probability of increased frontal gamma power (posterior probability = 0.99) and decreased posterior alpha power (0.89) during infusion, suggesting an acute increase in E/I ratio. These results suggest that 0.5 mg/kg is an effective initial IV ketamine dose in LL-TRD, although further studies in individuals older than 75 are required.

Deregulation of reduction-oxidation (redox) metabolism under environmental stresses results in enhanced production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which ultimately leads to post-translational modifications (PTMs) of responsive proteins. Redox PTMs play an important role in regulation of protein function and cellular signalling. By means of large-scale redox proteomics, we studied reversible cysteine modification during the response to short-term salt stress in Brassica napus (B. napus). We applied an iodoacetyl tandem mass tags (iodoTMT)-based proteomic approach to analyse the redox proteome of B. napus seedlings under control and salt-stressed conditions. We identified 1,821 sulphenylated sites in 912 proteins from all samples. A great number of sulphenylated proteins were predicted to localize to chloroplasts and cytoplasm and GO enrichment analysis of differentially sulphenylated proteins revealed that metabolic processes such as photosynthesis and glycolysis are enriched and enzymes are overrepresented. Redox-sensitive sites in two enzymes were validated in vitro on recombinant proteins and they might affect the enzyme activity. This targeted approach contributes to the identification of the sulphenylated sites and proteins in B. napus subjected to salt stress and our study will improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the redox regulation in response to salt stress.

The present study compared cognitive abilities and academic achievement of adolescents studying in three different school systems namely Urdu medium schools, English medium schools, and Cambridge system schools. The sample comprised of 1001 secondary school student. Cognitive abilities were assessed by Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (1960) and marks obtained by the students in the last annual examination were used as an index of academic achievement. Results showed that cognitive abilities of the students were positively associated with academic achievement of the respondents. It was further found that cognitive abilities and academic achievement of students studying in Cambridge school system was better as compared to those studying in other systems. Post-hoc comparison revealed that level of academic achievement of Urdu medium schools was lower as compared to English medium and Cambridge system of schools. The findings suggest that difference in schooling system influenced cognitive abilities and academic achievement of the students. Results further demonstrated that gender was a significant predictor of academic achievement in both Urdu and English medium schools. Future implications of the study were also discussed.

Flooding results in significant crop yield losses due to exposure of plants to hypoxic stress. Various studies have reported the effect of flooding stress at seedling establishment or later stages. However, the molecular mechanism prevailing at the germination stage under flooding stress remains enigmatic. The present study highlights the comparative transcriptome analysis in two rapeseed lines, i.e., flooding-tolerant (Santana) and -sensitive (23651) lines under control and 6-h flooding treatments at the germination stage. A total of 1840 up-regulated and 1301 down-regulated genes were shared by both lines in response to flooding. There were 4410 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with increased expression and 4271 DEGs with reduced expression shared in both control and flooding conditions. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that “transcription regulation”, “structural constituent of cell wall”, “reactive oxygen species metabolic”, “peroxidase”, oxidoreductase”, and “antioxidant activity” were the common processes in rapeseed flooding response. In addition, the processes such as “hormone-mediated signaling pathway”, “response to organic substance response”, “motor activity”, and “microtubule-based process” are likely to confer rapeseed flooding resistance. Mclust analysis clustered DEGs into nine modules, genes in each module shared similar expression patterns and many of these genes overlapped with the top 20 DEGs in some groups. This work provides a comprehensive insight into gene responses and the regulatory network in rapeseed flooding stress and provides guidelines for probing the underlying molecular mechanisms in flooding resistance.

Cell membranes are the initial site of stimulus perception from environment and phospholipids are the basic and important components of cell membranes. Phospholipases hydrolyze membrane lipids to generate various cellular mediators. These phospholipase-derived products, such as diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, inositol phosphates, lysophopsholipids, and free fatty acids, act as second messengers, playing vital roles in signal transduction during plant growth, development, and stress responses. This review focuses on the structure, substrate specificities, reaction requirements, and acting mechanism of several phospholipase families. It will discuss their functional significance in plant growth, development, and stress responses. In addition, it will highlight some critical knowledge gaps in the action mechanism, metabolic and signaling roles of these phospholipases and their products in the context of plant growth, development and stress responses.

Regression analysis has been brought into practical functionality in this paper to intensify the magnitude of adequacy for outliers' detection in medical data. Previously, linear regression model for the outlier detection in medical data has been used. The use of linear model to detect outliers leaves a certain amount of gap in increasing the efficiency of the expected values. Linear regression basically represents linear relationship between data and sometimes loosely fits the data. The proposed FCR technique on contrary contributes towards increasing the efficiency of expected data and improved effectiveness towards detecting outliers. The proposed method is adept to best fit curve to the data. It further verifies to be a constructive asset that increases the model adequacy on medical data. The proposed approach in this paper has demonstrated to deliver enhanced adequacy paralleled to linear regression.

Despite numerous clinical studies regarding the management of unilateral impalpable testes by laparoscopy, there is a paucity of such studies regarding the management of bilateral 'non-palpable' testes. We shared the outcome of the laparoscopic management of bilateral 'non-palpable' testes in terms of successful orchiopexy and complications in children.A total of 22 children underwent bilateral diagnostic laparoscopy for undescended testes who presented to our department from January 2010 till March 2018. We did chart review for variables such as the age of children, operative time, hospital stay, single-stage or 2 stage procedure, and operative complications. Preoperatively history and physical examination were done along with baseline investigations and Ultrasound abdomen and scrotum before surgery for general anaesthesia fitness. They were managed by single or two steps laparoscopic orchiopexy according to suitability for each case.We performed bilateral laparoscopic orchidopexies in 22 children having a mean age of 4.1±1.98 years (49.2 months) Mean operative time for single setting bilateral single-stage orchiopexy was 136±32 minutes. Out of twenty-two children with bilateral impalpable testes, 12 boys (54.5%) were managed with a single-stage Bilateral Laparoscopic technique while the other 10 (45.45%) were managed in 2 staged laparoscopic intervention using Fowler-Stephens technique. Testicular atrophy was seen in 2/44 testes (4.54%). While 1 /44 (2.27%) testis had ascended to the inguinal region requiring redo surgery.Laparoscopic management of bilateral 'non-palpable' testes in a single or double setting is a safe and effective method of bringing testes down to the scrotum. It has no major morbidities.

Message framing plays an important role in advertising strategies and has been studied from various perspectives in different behavioral researches. In this study Event Rated Potentials technique helped to examine the neural mechanism of message framing effect on self-conscious emotions of pride and guilt regarding consumer purchase intention in the context of green marketing. Behavioral results showed that participants ranked higher on positive framing compared to negative framing. ERP results declared that N1 component was elicited by positive framed message with emotion of pride and guilt, reflecting use of attentional resources to acquire potential benefits at first stage of processing emotional information. At the second stage P2 was higher for negative framing containing pride and guilt slogan, showing more attention towards processing emotional information about potential loss. At the third stage LPP component portray that both positive and negative framing is supported by guilt emotion when processing emotional information in decision making. Our results delivered strong evidence that how purchase intention can be mediated by message framing under the pride and guilt emotions in the context of green marketing.

Background Message framing plays an important role in advertising strategies and has been studied from various perspectives in different behavioral studies. New method This study employs the event-related potential technique to examine attentional and emotional brain processing as influenced by message framing in the context of green marketing. Results The behavioral results demonstrated that purchase preference was higher under positive framing compared to negative and neutral framing. As per the event-related potential results, negative framing elicited a larger P1 component, which reveals that in the first stage of processing information, threatening information attracted more attention. In the second and third stage, N170 and P3, respectively, were higher for positive framing, demonstrating that there was more attention toward the processing of non-threatening emotional information. Comparison with existing method: Message Framing has been previously examined with behavioral methods. We for the first time examined it with a neuroscientific method like Event Related Brain Potential technique in a green marketing context. Conclusion Our results compared to behavioral studies provide stronger evidence from underlying neural perspective for how message framing can be affected by attentional and emotional brain responses in the context of green marketing., Attention; Emotion; Event-related brain potentials; Green marketing; Message framing; ERPs; Consumer attitude; Research and development; Consumer psychology; Decision analysis; Cognition

Plant phospholipase A (PLA) and C (PLC) families are least explored in terms of structure, diversity and their roles in membrane lipid remodeling under stress conditions. In this study, we performed gene family analysis, determined gene expression in different tissues and monitored transcriptional regulation of patatin-related PLA family and PLC family in oil crop Brassica napus under dehydration, salt, abscisic acid and cold stress. The identified 29 BnapPLA genes and 40 BnaPLC genes shared high similarities with Arabidopsis pPLAs and PLCs, respectively. This study highlighted the expression pattern of BnapPLAs and BnaPLCs in different tissues and their expression in response to abiotic stresses in Brassica napus. The results revealed that several members of BnapPLA3, PI-PLC1/2 and NPC1 were actively regulated by abiotic stresses. Lipid changes at different time points under stress conditions were also measured. Lipid profiling revealed that the level of lysophospholipids and diacylglycerol (DAG) showed a varied pattern of changes under different abiotic stress treatments. The change of lipids correlated with the transcriptional regulation of a few specific members of pPLA and PLC families. Our study suggested that A and C-type phospholipases in Brassica napus may have diverse physiological and regulatory roles in abiotic stress response and tolerance.

Rapeseed production is limited by abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and low temperature. Evidences suggest that common stress response genes are shared by multiple stresses. To study how rapeseed responds to abiotic stresses at transcriptional level and identify genes that regulate multiple abiotic stress tolerance, we investigated transcriptional dynamics of the rapeseed treated by abscisic acid (ABA), salt, dehydration, and cold stresses at two different time points, respectively. A total of 30,908 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under 4 abiotic stresses were identified. There were 2568 upregulated and 4376 downregulated DEGs (2-fold change) commonly shared by four stresses. Analysis of the DEGs identified significantly enriched gene ontology biological processes under multiple stress conditions. The commonly shared DEGs included 225 upregulated and 294 downregulated transcription factors belonging to 35 and 40 different families, respectively. The representative mostly upregulated and downregulated DEGs at each time point of abiotic stress treatment were presented. We identified a list of core abiotic stress genes commonly regulated by four stresses, which mainly included ERD15, RAB18, LEA14, and transcription factors belonging to ERF, bZIP, and MYBR1 families. The findings of shared abiotic stress responsive genes may help develop strategies for breeding rapeseed varieties with improved tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses.

Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has affected millions of people worldwide and this count continues to increase at an alarming rate. Aims and objectives: The main objective of the study is to analyse the relationship between insulin resistance and physical activity among adults with diabetes mellitus. Material and methods: This descriptive study was conducted in Health department Punjab during June 2018 to December 2018. The data was collected from 100 patients of diabetes mellitus. Data on sex, age, present physical activity, physical activity in earlier decades of life, smoking and drinking habits, and use of hypoglycemic drugs was collected from the questionnaire. Results: The data was collected from 100 patients. Men and women responding with “some” exercise in the past composed the largest group and had the youngest average age. Those whose exercise was “consistent” through earlier decades had the highest percentage of individuals who maintained physical activity in the present, approximately 10% to 15% higher than “some” or “none” among both men and women. Conclusion: It is concluded that Past physical activity was inversely associated with present insulin resistance. It is hoped that this study, focusing on the influence of physical activity at an early age on insulin resistance later in life.

Introduction: Hypertension is a modifiable and major risk factor for coronary artery disease, heart failure, cerebrovascular disease and chronic renal failure. Objectives of the study: The main objective of the study is to analyse the incidence of CVD in young hypertensive males in Pakistani population. Methodology of the study: This cross sectional study was conducted in Health department Punjab during July 2018 to February 2019. The data was collected from 100 male hypertensive patients. The age range was 18 to 30 years. A questionnaire was designed to characterize both patients and control subjects. Results: The data was collected from 100 male hypertensive patients. The patient’s group had significantly higher BMI, SBP, DBP and lipid profile levels as compared to controls (P < 0.05). The BMI was significantly more in the males whereas, other risk factors like TC, TG and vLDL-C were significantly increased in female group. Blood pressure, LDL-C, HDL-C and TC: HDL-C showed insignificant differences between the study groups. Conclusion: It is concluded that hypertension and dyslipidemia are the most prominent of the risk factors. Further research is required to determine the cause of this high burden of CVD in male so that appropriate measures can be undertaken to prevent significant morbidity and mortality.

Brassica species are vulnerable to narrow genetic base due to the ignorance of their wild relatives which possess many superior characters. This study was aimed to explore the genetic diversity in five Brassica species from U triangle as well as in their wild relative Eruca sativa. For the complete insight of genetic diversity, four accessions, each from five species of genus Brassica along with one species of Eruca collected from different geographical locations (exotic and indigenous) were selected. Six yield associated parameters viz., primary branches plant-1, plant height, main raceme length, silique length, silique width and silique main raceme-1 were studied. Highly significant variations among all species were observed. Mean performance showed that wild relative E. sativa was superior for primary branches plant -1 and plant height, which are the main yield associated traits. In case of Brassica species, B. campestris gave the lengthiest main racemes, B. nigra produced more silique main raceme-1 and B. carinata produced the longest and widest silique.

More than eleven million U.S. Veterans are at least 65 years of age, an age group of which almost 20% suffers from clinically significant depressive symptoms. Available pharmacological treatments are suboptimal for patients, including veterans, with late-life depression. Ketamine has emerged as a potentially promising rapid-acting therapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, few studies have examined the safety, tolerability and efficacy of ketamine therapy for older adults with late-life TRD (LL-TRD). This study uses an adaptive randomization design to test the safety, tolerability, efficacy, and durability of three distinct, single sub-anesthetic doses of intravenous (IV) ketamine versus a single dose of active placebo (midazolam) in older depressed veterans. As the study progresses, Bayesian adaptive randomization recalibrates randomization ratios to allocate more participants to conditions demonstrating greater promise and fewer participants to conditions with less promise. Secondary analyses explore clinical and biological moderating and mediating factors of rapid treatment response. Results are expected to inform both the viability of ketamine treatment and optimal dosing strategies for patients with LL-TRD. Keywords: Ketamine, Late-life depression, Treatment-resistant depression, Veterans, Adaptive design, Bayesian trial design

A mild Pd-catalyzed process for the borylation of alkyl bromides has been developed using bis(pinacolato)diboron as a boron source. This process accommodates the use of a wide range of functional groups on the alkyl bromide substrate. Primary bromides react with complete selectivity in the presence of a secondary bromide. The generality of this approach is demonstrated by its extension to the use of alkyl iodides and alkyl tosylates, as well as borylation reactions employing bis(neopentyl glycolato)diboron as the boron source.

We propose multilayer feed forward Neural Network for Urdu isolated words and Urdu continuous speech recognition. Our application not only recognizes the voice commands but also converts continuous speech into Urdu Fonts. Our work is based on converting analog signal to digital signals, removing silence and noise through filters, extracting 39 Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients(MFCCs) from the speech signal, applying k-mean algorithm and using them as an input to multi-layer perceptron neural networks. Urdu text stores in “Jameel Noori Nastaleeq” fonts. Isolated words gain accuracy of 95.6% in speaker dependent mode while 30–40% in speaker independent mode. Continuous speech also shows a good accuracy of 96.5% in speaker dependent mode and 30–40% for speaker independent mode. Current work is being extended to improve accuracy for speaker independent system by improving dataset and feature set.

High-impact diseases, especially cancer, are challenging to diagnose without supplementing laboratory testing. Even with laboratory tools, definitive diagnosis often remains elusive. The oral fluid nanosensor test technology platform combines cutting-edge technologies--such as self-assembled monolayers, bionanotechnology, cyclic enzymatic amplification, and microfluidics--with several well-established techniques including microinjection molding, hybridization-based detection, and molecular purification. The intended use of the OFNASET is for the point-of-care multiplex detection of salivary biomarkers for oral cancer.

The present study was conducted in District Jail, Peshawar, Pakistan by selecting 84 offenders involved in Women Trafficking, through snow ball sampling techniques for measuring therespondent’s knowledge on women trafficking with the psychological aspect, leading to women trafficking. Majority of the respondents i.e. (79.8%) considered little effects of social stigmatization followed by forced marriage for money (73.8%), feigned love (69.0%) and identifying normative behavior (61.9%) as the major causes of women trafficking in the study area. Moreover, a moderate but negative relation was determined between force marriage for money (Ƴ =-0.418), early age group women fall prey to women trafficking (Ƴ =-0.40) and a positive relationship between little effects of stigmatization (Ƴ =0.310) with knowledge on women trafficking. In addition, a significant but negative relationship was also ascertained between forced marriage for money (p